Melissa McCooley defended herself at the Jan. 24 meeting of the Pinelands Regional Board of Education, questioning the legitimacy of an online petition that aims to have her removed as the superintendent of both the Pinelands Regional and Little Egg Harbor school districts thanks to a shared service agreement.

“The inaccuracies endorsed as facts in the petition are too numerous to address individually,” McCooley told the board and dozens of people in the audience in a prepared statement.